Gerry Faust revisited for Irish?

This isn't what Notre Dame football fans had in mind when they talked about Charlie Weis waking the echoes.

It was supposed to mean the Gipper, Rockne, Rudy, Lujack, Leahy, Lattner, Parseghian, Hornung, Holtz, Montana-

Gerry Faust, no, not so much.

Weis' tenure as Notre Dame's head coach has begun to echo Faust's in the 1980s.

Just as it became clear the Fighting Irish erred by bringing Faust up from the high school level, the suspicion now is they erred by bringing Weis down from the NFL.

This week has the eerie feel of Faust's final days on the job in 1985.

Remember how the Irish ended that season - and Faust's five-year stumble - with a 58-7 loss to Miami in the Orange Bowl?

The opponent was a national power. The venue was venerable. The defeat was humiliating. The season's final record was 5-6.

This week it's powerful Southern California, in the historic Los Angeles Coliseum, with humiliating possibilities and a likely final record of 6-6.

Indications are Weis' job is safer than was Faust's, who resigned to spare Notre Dame the trouble of not renewing his expiring contract.

Despite all the muttering over how poorly Weis treats people and how poorly he's coaching, he probably will get another year in South Bend.

That would give Weis five seasons, the same number Faust had. Four might be enough time to evaluate a coach, but five definitely is.

Ah, but the situation is fluid, stuff happens, times change and anything is possible after a week like this one.

Weis has millions of dollars and what seems like a lifetime remaining on his ND deal, making a buyout costly.

No wonder that athletic director Jack Swarbrick, new to his position, doesn't sound inclined to fire Weis even though he didn't hire him.

The question is whether the AD will have the final say or university trustees, wealthy donors and rabid fans will supersede his authority as reportedly happened when Ty Willingham was fired.

In this high-stakes era of college athletics, support can be fickle in general and at Notre Dame, specifically.

Gone is the time when Irish administrators could and would take the moral high ground and honor the contract of a coach, any coach, even a Faust or Weis.

We're talking about a new day when it's win, win now, win big, win New Year's Day, win national championships, win this, win that, win everything.

So, what happens if USC beats Notre Dame by, say, 58-7 the way Miami did 23 years ago?

The only good news for Weis would be that the indignity occurred in Los Angeles, where Irish fans couldn't pelt him and his team with snowballs like they did after last week's home loss to Syracuse.

(Then again, perhaps affluent alums will import snow to L.A. just to reiterate to Weis how disgusted they are.)

Anyway, Weis already is burdened by the impression highly rated recruits don't develop under him, that he's losing to inferior teams like Syracuse, that his win-loss record is plunging toward Faustian depths.

One more embarrassing loss - something like 58-7 to a team that Notre Dame used to rival - could doom Weis.

You can almost hear the echoes booing from South Bend to Los Angeles and back.

mimrem@dailyherald.com